Musical instrument



Dec; 23, 1952 J. T. KUNZ 2,622,467

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed Nov. 17, 1948 2 SHEETS-SHEET l INVENTOR.

a/A 006 7. Aim/Z BY HWyZW Dec. 23, 1952 J. I. KUNZ 2,622,467

MUSICAL. INSTRUMENT Filed Nov. 17, 1948 2 SI-lEETS-Sl-1EET z INVENTOR.Jae-0B 7. Au/vz MQLZZZZZ/ Patented Dec. 23, 1952 UNITED PATENT" OFFICEMUSICAL INSTRUMENT Jacob T. Kunz, North Hills Pa assignor to SchulmerichElectronics, Incorporated, :Sellersville,- Paa a corporation'ofxPennsylvania- Application November 17, 1 948',1S,e1ia;l"N0; 60,469

(CI. B l-r404) 14; Claims.

1 This'invention relates to music instruments and particularlytovibrator dampingarrangementsfor electricmusic instruments, thevibratorinvolved especially being-adapted for-use in the productionoftrue bell -or-chimetones and the like. 1

Various vibrators' have been usedin music instruments for producing bellor chime tones.

The vibrating elements of said instruments have comprised bars or rods,both solid and -hol1ow, as well as innumerable other shapes of elements.The mechanical vibrations'produced thereby have been translated orpicked up electrically, "amplified, and then translated into sound'by'an electro-acoustic transducer or loud speakerto produce bell tones.The location ofthe electric vibrator has one end-thereoffi-xed-and theother "end free to vibrate; Free-free vibrators also have been usedwherein both ends of the-vibrator are-unrestrained and therefore free-tomove,- the vibrator being suitably "supported; I

In the: case of an instrument employed to reproduce-bell tones,particular--care:must be-used in the arrangement Of-the-"Vib-rators-toobtain the d'esireclcharacteristic tone; the correct relationship ofpartials, and the,,gcorrect relationship ofdamping' or decay of'thepartials "rela tive to each other. This requires that the? vibratorsfunction in such a way'as. to permit the ielectricalpickl-up andelectrical circuits and arrangements to finally produce a correct'belltone v electric music instrument which will produce a bell tone or otherdesired tone having the correct relationship between the partials andtones therein during the period, of vibration of 9. vi-

brator thereof.

Whena fixed weightjis placed ,on, a rod or bar vibrator. for purposes of.alteringjthe partial structure of a tone produced by the rod, the

the desired damping relationship for v the partialsin'the rod to'producecorrectly a bell tone.

A-nothen'of the objects of the invention is to provide 'a dampingarrangement for a vibrating rod which is only-intermittently efiectiveduring vibration of'the rodyandwhich will" retain-the desired "partialstructure.

The invention 'contemplates a dampingmeans placed on a rod or vibratorin such a manner thatthe damping means will be activated uponenergization ofthe rod and will not substantially affect the partialstructure relationship during vibration of the rod.

Theenergyat the endof a rod will-be made up of the-total energy of allofthe partials in the'rod, especially in'a rod-having a free end.

"The damping can be accomplished by the use of a damping device which iseffective intermittently during the Vibration period of the red, thedamping device'being activated or rendered intermittentlyefiective uponenergizationof the vibrating bararrangement.

In-one aspect of theinvention, reference being madeespeciallyto afixed-free rod arrangement, a receptacle or holding meanscan be fastenedto the free'end of the rod and." a ball'or other shaped solid elementplaced therein, said *ball' normally resting on top of the rod; When therodis set"-into-vibration, the ball will bounce or move relative tothetop of the rod and away from contact with the top thereof and thuswill intermittently serve to damp all of'the vibrations. The dampingdevice thus will'not substantially affiect' the partial structure sothat the electrical vibrations produced in the amplifiercircuitwillhavetheproper relationship between the'svarious partials from "the timethe rod isastruck until the rod comes to rest.- This is nottrue ofaweight'permanentlyfastened at some point along the rod becausesuch aweight will only affect one orsome of the partials and will affect"these duringthe entire "vibration and not intermittently;

.In another aspect of'the invention, a finely divided solid material-canbe placed in the receptacle. or holder located on the end of the rod.The finely divided-material will be eifective intermittently'to absorb"energy from all of the partials. Also, some typeof loosely mountedelement can be placed on the end of the rod. In the case of a looselymounted element, such asa wire or collar; the wire 'or'collar' will jumpfree'from the rod intermittently as the rod is vibrated, and thus serveto intermittently damp the various partials. A plurality of spheres maybe used at the end" of the rod instead of one sphere. Also, a pieceofpl'asticor otheren'ergy i must be located at a point where there are noother than those described herein. other objects, features andadvantages of the absorbing solid material may be loosely threadedthrough an aperture adjacent the end of the rod so as to intermittentlycontact the rod upon vibration thereof. The rod may be in the horizontalposition as well as vertical, the damping arrangement being suitablypositioned on the rod or vibrator. The aforementioned divided material,wire, collar, sphere, or plastic are to be considered solid materials.

The rod and damping device of the present invention can be used forvarious purposes such as for example, the vibrators in the musicalinstrument described in the copending application, Serial No. 60,470,filed November 17, 1948, now

Patent No. 2,606,474, issued August 12, 1952, or 1 for the typedescribed in copending application, Serial No. 641,243, filed January15, 1946, now Patent No. 2,463,543, issued March 8, 1949. In each of theaforementioned instruments, a plurality of vibrating rods of thefixed-free variety are mounted on a block or a plurality of blocks, therods being selected to give the various desired notes of a carillon.Selectively operated strikers are located adjacent said rods so that thevarious notes of the bell instrument can be sounded. Electric pick-upsor collectors are arranged adjacent the rods and connected to amplifiersfor energizing a loud speaker. The amplifier and loud speaker areselected and arranged to modify or eliminate the partials as desired toproduce a good bell tone.

In one of the instruments described, a pair of vibrators is used foreach note, said vibrators being tuned a predetermined musical intervalapart.

In one of said rods, the pick-up is located at a characteristic tone ofone rod will bear the proper relationship to the partials or thecharacteristic tone of the other rod. The partials of the two rods thencan be chosen so that they will be those desired in a bell of theFlemish or harmony type. Damping devices made in accordance with thepresent invention if placed on such rods will cause the partials topersist the correct length of time and relationship in each rod toproduce a good bell tone.

In a rod having free ends, each of the partials will have an anti-nodeat the free end thereof so that energy will be absorbed from all of thepartials intermittently. In the case of a vibrator fixed at both ends,the intermittent damping device of the invention must be placed veryclose to a fixed end so as to only disproportionately affect a few ofthe partials. The damping means nodes of any of the significant partialsto be used in producing the desired tone.

The invention may be employed on various types of vibrators and may takevarious forms invention will become apparent from the followingdescription and drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pair of rods with the invention inuse thereon.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the top of one of the rodsof Figure l in section showing one form of the invention.

Figure 3 is similar to Figure 2 except that it shows a modification ofthe invention.

These and 6 Figure 4 is similar to Figure 2 with the exception that itshows still another modification.

Figure 5 is similar to Figure 2 except that it shows a furthermodification.

Figure 6 is a schematic showing of the invention and a wiring diagramtherefor.

Figure '7 is a fragmentary view of one form of the invention showing astabilizer arrangement added thereto.

Figure 8 is a fragmentary view of another form of the invention.

Figure 9 is a fragmentary view of a modification of the form of theinvention shown in Figure 8.

In Figure 1 will be found a rod assembly such as described in copendingapplication, Serial No. 60,470, filed November 17, 1948. In this form ofthe invention, two rods are mounted on a single base, the rods beingtuned a predetermined musical interval apart. When only one rod is usedper note, all of the rods may be mounted on a single base. Base may bemounted on resilient supports 2|, 2| carried on a bed plate 22. Rods 23,24 are solidly fixed in groove 25 of base or rod support 20. The rodspreferably are grooved at 23A, 24A near their point of emergence fromthe block or rod support 20. When a groove, or a plurality of grooves ofeven depths and widths are placed on a rod, the rod when struck willproduce partials falling into a Substantially even harmonic pattern.

The collector may take various forms such as seen at 26 and 21 (Fig. 1),said collector plates being mounted on collector plate bar 28, eachcollector plate having an electrode 29 closely adjacent its rod. Whencollector plates are used as seen in Figure 1, the vibrations therefromare collected and fed to a preamplifier 30 (Fig. 6), said preamplifierbeing connected to amplifier 3| which in turn is connected to anelectro-acoustic transducer or loud speaker 32. The collector plates 33in this form are located at, desired positions so as to pick up thedesired partials from the rods and to eliminate others. Referring toFigure 6, strikers 34 can be selectively operated by a suitable keyboardmechanism 35. In the case where two rods are employed for producing asingle note, one striker is used to strike both rods simultaneously.- Arod is seen at 36 and a collector plate at 31 for said rod. A second rod(not seen) also may be on base 38 with a col lector plate 39 therefore.

A damping device made-in accordance with the invention is indicated at40 on the endof each rod 36 of Figure 6 and at MA, MB in Fig ure 1.

As mentioned previously, the clamping device contemplated in the presentinvention is one which is of solid material and is intermittentlyeffective upon the partial of the rod and which is activated uponenergization of the rod. The term solid material includes flexibleelements such as thread.

In the preferred form of the invention, collar or receptacle 42 (Fig. 2)is screw-threadedly mounted on the end of rod 43. It is of courseobvious that the collar may be fastened on the rod by other means thanby threads. A ball 44 is located inside of said collar, said ballnormally resting upon the top of rod 43. The ball 44 preferably has adiameter very close to the external diameter of the rod, there being,for examples clearance of about 0.002 to 0.003inch between the ball andthe interior wall of the collar or receptacle. It is desirable that theend of the rod be ttudinalcaxis of the-rod so. asto obtain consistentdamping action when the rod is vibrated.

.Also arsoit'material or paint may be placed on ntheni-nside of the.collar 42 orcup so that the ball will not. set the'xrod into vibrationdue toambient vibrations; Theball may be made of any suitable materialsuch as brass, stainless steel, or other material having the desiredresilient and hardness properties:

Whentherodis at rest, the. ball, will be in place ont oprof :rod. 43.Upon vibration of the rod, the

ball: Will 1 jump upwardly and return into contact with the end. of therod intermittently so'that; the rod willgbe vibrating free of the ballat intervals andi-thus the. ball will not be damping the vibrations;continuously-as is the case withv a weight solidly mounted on avibrator. The-ener y from all .ofthe partials in. the rod is thusabsorbed in .tpulsesrascompared toa weight which is perma-"nentlyilocated 'on-the rod.

Merely'by'way of example,v in a rod which is 15? ozs: :in :weight, andtuned to middlev C, the

,undamped' period will be about 15 seconds as compared: to a dampedperiod of about seconds when-.2 steel balls of about diameter are used:

In another form of the invention, the ballmay ;be replaced by a'finelydivided material 45 -(Fig. 3:) ilocated'i-nithe collar or cup 45,- saidbushing or .-'cup.r-being-firmly .fastened to the end of rod 41.

itris apparent that as the rod .is vibrated, the 'sand-or otherlfinelydivided material will change "positiorr rel-ative to the end of the rodso that the :mass of material will vary and willbe eifective toadamp;thevibrations intermittently, similar to theruse of the-ball.

In still another form of the invention, the

holder or collar 48 (Fig. 4) located onrod so: may shavena wire or rod,"49- of suitable weight connectedz'over the endthereof, said wire beingheld in. place in] some suitable manner. The wire 43 iswfre'ea'tovibrate upwardly and clear of the collar-'48 "dsth' rod is struokandthus the mass of the wire -49 will :serve intermittently to damp"the'vibrations in the-rod.

In still another form of the invention, a collar 5| (Fig. 5), which maybe split, may be placed in the; groove .5'2ficut in the end of rod 53.It is apparent in this form that as the rod is vibrated, the collar willintermittently jump clear ,from contact with the rod and thus..intermittently damp the vibrations in the rod in.a manner similar tothe previously'described arrangement.

In Figure '7 will be seen the use of theinyention of the form shown indetailin Figure 2 in conjunction with another arrangement formodityingthe vibrations. The stabilizer illustrated will serve.tolaterally restrictfree motion of the rod and thus tend to restrictthe fundamental .orlowest. tone of the rod, ,This. is desirable in abell instrument wherein the lowest partial tones interfere with any ofthe desired partials in .the

point. along the rods such as near the centers thereof.

' A striker; mechanism 5| can be carried on a resiliently supportedchannel, '62. In the form shown in Figure 7,, two rods for each tonecanbe carried on a single base, or there, may bexa single rod- 'for eachtone as, desired. Preferably, the base :56nis resiliently mounted(notshown) and the weightof the base properly related to the otherelements of the vibrating system.

Suitable weights 55 (Figs. 1, 7) may be placed along the rod or rods asdesired so as to control thepartials in the rods as necessary.

In Figure 3 is seen another form of intermittently acting damping devicewherein-rod. scan thread, or other suitable material forintermittentlyabsorbing the energy of the partials. The element 68 maybe round or fiat, or any suitable cross sectional shape. Figure 9 issimilar :to Figure 8, rod 69 having an aperture 10 ."loosely holdingloop 1!. Loop H can have a cross section similar to element 68. ofFigure 8- and bexof similar material.

The forms shown in Figure 8 and.9 are especially suitable for rodsmounted in a horizontal position. The other types of damping devicesalso "can be used on horizontal rods .by'suitably mounted said deviceson the ends of the rods.

In. accordance with the present invention, the

partial tones in a vibrator or vibrators, useful in anelectricinstrument producing bell tones, can be damped .so "that the properrelationship. between the various :partial tones will be presentthroughout the time of vibration of eachyibrator in producing the belltone, the: damping means parting from the spirit of the invention exceptasde'lined in the appendedclaims.

What is claimed:

1'. In. a vibrator damping :device adapted for use in an electric musicinstrument or the like, a vibrator element, a solid intermittentlyactinginertia damping means loosely mounted on'and operatively connected withsaid vibrator, :and means normally loosely holding said damping meanson" said vibrator when said vibrator is at rest, said damping meansbeing activated by vibration of the vibrator to move into andout-ofdamping relationship therewith and thus intermittently damp the partialtones generated in said vibrator.

2. In a vibrator damping device adapted for use in an electric musicinstrument or the'like,

a vibrator element, a solid intermittently acting inertia damping deviceloosely mounted oniand operatively connected with said vibrator adjacentone end thereof, and means normally loosely holding said device on saidvibrator when said vibrator is at rest, said damping device beingactivated by vibration of the vibrator to move into and out of dampingrelationship therewith and thus intermittently damp the partial tonesgenerated in said vibrator.

3. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, an elongatedrod, a solid inter- 'mittently acting inertia damping device looselymounted on said vibrator, and means normally loosely holding said deviceon said rod when said rod is at rest, said device being movableintermittently out of damping position relative to said rod uponenergization of said rod.

4. In an electric music instrument vibrator clamping device, anelongated rod fixed at one end and free at the other, a solidintermittently acting inertia damping device loosely operativelyconnected to said rod, and means normally loosely holding said device onsaid rod when said rod is at rest, said device being movable relativethereto intermittently out of damping condition relative thereto, sothat the partials in said rod have energy absorbed by said clampingdevice in pulses.

5. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, an elongatedrod fixed at one end and free at the other, a solid-intermittentlyacting inertia clamping device loosely operatively connected to said rodadjacent one end thereof, and means normally loosely holding said deviceon said rod when said rod is at rest, said device being movable relativethereto intermittently out of damping condition relative thereto, sothat the partials in said rod have energy absorbed by said dampingdevice in pulses.

6. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, an elongatedfixed-free rod vibrator, a solid inertia element, and restraining meansloosely connecting said inertia element to said rod, said means normallyloosely holding said element on said vibrator when said vibrator is atrest, said inertia member being intermittently contactable with portionsof said restraining means as the rod is vibrated so as to intermittentlydamp the partial tones generated in said rod, and substantially retainthe partial structure thereof.

'7. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, anelongated rod, a restraining means mounted on said rod, a solid inertiameans loosely mounted on and carried by said restraining means, andmeans normally loosely holding said inertia means on said rod when saidrod is at rest, said inertia means intermittently contacting saidrestraining means upon vibration of said rod so as to intermittentlydamp the partial tones generated in said rod.

8. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, an elongatedrod, a receptacle mounted on one end of said rod, and a solid ballinertia member held thereby against the end of said rod when the rod isat rest, and intermittently movable away from damping contact with saidrod upon energization of said rod so as to intermittently damp partialtones generated by said rod.

9. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, an elongatedrod, a receptacle mounted on one end of said rod, and a mass of finelydivided solid material loosely held in said receptacle in dampingrelationship relative to said rod when the rod is at rest, the relativeposition of the mass of said finely divided material at the end of saidrod being intermittently variable upon energization of said rod, so asto intermittently damp the partial tones generated by said rod.

10. In an electric music instrument vibrator damping device, anelongated rod, a holder means mounted on said rod, and a solid inertiarod loosely mounted on said holder means and movable relative thereto inand out of damping contact intermittently in relation to said red whensaid rod is vibrated, so as to intermittently damp the partial tonesgenerated in said rod.

11. In an electric music instrument vibrator clamping device, anelongated rod having a groove therein, and a solid collar looselymounted in said groove and intermittently movable in and out of dampingcontact with said rod upon energization thereof so as to retain thepartial structure of said rod as it is vibrated.

12. In an electric music instrument vibrator clamping device, anelongated rod having an aperture therein adjacent one end thereof, and asolid energy absorbing loop member loosely mounted in said aperture forintermittently absorbing energy upon vibration of said rod, said energyabsorbing loo being activated by vibration of the rod to move into andout of damping relationship therewith and thus intermittently damp tonesgenerated in said rod.

13. In a vibrator clamping device adapted for use in an electric musicinstrument and the like, a vibrator element, said vibrator elementhaving an aperture therein, and a solid intermittently acting elongatedinertia damping element loosely threaded in said aperture, said elementbeing activated by vibration of the vibrator to move into and out ofdamping relationship therewith and thus intermittently damp tonesgenerated in said vibrator.

14. In an electric music instrument vibrator clamping device, anelongated rod, a solid inertia rod loosely mounted and held on said rod,and means normally loosely holding said inertia rod on said elongatedrod when said elongated rod is at rest, said inertia rod being movablerelative thereto in and out of damping contact intermittently inrelation to said rod when said rod is vibrated, so 'as to intermittentlydamp the partial tones generated on said rod.

JACOB T. KUNZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

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